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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Hookzn, J. D., M.D., F.R.S.: Illustrations of HIMALAYAN PLANTS, 
chiefly selected from Drawings made for the late J. F. CavHOART, © 
Esa., of the Bengal Civil Service. The Plates executed by W. H. Fitch. 
Large folio, 25 coloured plates. Lovell Reeve, London, 1855. 
With the exception of the inimitable *Illustrationes Flore Nove- 
Hollandie" of Ferdinand Bauer, and of the ‘Delineations of Exotic 
Plants cultivated in the Royal Gardens of Kew,’ by Francis Bauer, we 
think we may safely say, that no botanical work more beautiful in ex- 
ecution than the present has ever appeared, and, when we observe that 
the plants are selected from nearly a thousand of the choicest products 
of Himalayan vegetation, none more beautiful in point of subjects. A 
well written introduction informs us of the double object of the author 
in publishing it: first, to pay such a tribute to the memory of his friend, 
the late Mr. Cathcart, as should ensure the association of his name with 
the progress of Indian Botany; and second, to record the services he 
has rendered to that science, by having caused a magnificent series of 
coloured drawings of Himalayan plants to be executed in a previously 
ünknown part of the mountain-range, and which, since his death, has 
been presented, through Dr. Hooker, to the Royal Gardens of Kew, by 
his sister, Miss Catheart, of Alloway. : 
The brief memoir of the life of Mr. Cathcart is very interesting, and — 
written with much feeling. Besides the twenty-four plates, the litho- - 
graphed title-page is surrounded by an exquisite and tasteful group of 
thirty different species of Himalayan plants, designed and executed by 
Mr. Fitch. 
The first three plates are devoted to that most remarkable Cucurbi- : 
taceous plant, and new genus, Hodgsonia heteroclita, whose great flowers - 
are margined with copious tendril-like filaments, almost a foot long. 
Tab. 4 and 5, Magnolia Campbellii, is perhaps the glory of the book; as 
it assuredly is of the forests of Himalaya, at from 8-10,000 feet of 
elevation. Bags of the fresh-gathered seeds have been sent to us, "v 
post, seemingly perfect, but they would never germinate. Tab. 6, 
Talauma Hodgsonii has much of the character of the Magnolia, but is be : 
less beautiful. Tab. 8, Meconopsis simplicifolia, is a charming and very 
singular Papaveraceous plant, with large purple flowers ; the most beau- 
